Heidi Shierholz
Heidi Shierholz leads the Economic Policy Institutes’ Perkins Project on Worker Rights and Wages, a policy response team that tracks the Trump administration’s wage and employment policies. She also heads EPI’s efforts to advance a worker-centered policy agenda.
Articles by this author
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Views Thursday, June 18, 2020 Over Three Months Into Pandemic and Job Losses Remain at Historic Levels Last week, 2.2 million workers applied for unemployment benefits. This is the 13th week in a row—a full three months—that initial unemployment claims are more than twice the worst week of the Great Recession. Of the 2.2 million who applied for unemployment benefits last week, 1.4 million applied... Read more |
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Views Thursday, June 11, 2020 It's Been Three Months Since Covid-19 Hit and the Economic Pain Continues Last week, 2.2 million workers applied for unemployment benefits. This is the twelfth week in a row that initial unemployment claims are have been more than twice the worst week of the Great Recession. Of the 2.2 million who applied for unemployment benefits last week, 1.5 million applied for... Read more |
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Views Thursday, May 21, 2020 Congress Must Do Much, Much, Much More to Help Tens of Millions Unemployed Last week, 3.3 million workers applied for unemployment benefits. That is an improvement over the 6 million per week we saw in late March/early April, but is an increase from the prior week—and is still well over three times the worst week of the Great Recession. Of the 3.3 million who applied for... Read more |
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Views Thursday, May 14, 2020 In Just Two Months, More Than 33 Million Americans Have Filed for Unemployment In the last eight weeks, more than 33 million people —more than one in five workers—have applied for unemployment insurance (UI) through regular state UI programs. That is more than five times the worst eight-week stretch of the Great Recession. Some good news is that regular state UI claims have... Read more |
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Views Thursday, May 07, 2020 Nearly One in Five Workers Applied for State Unemployment Insurance Benefits in the Last Seven Weeks A previously unimaginable number of workers have applied for state unemployment insurance (UI) benefits as a result of the coronavirus shock. In the last seven weeks alone, more than 30 million workers have applied for unemployment compensation. That is nearly one in five workers. And it is nearly... Read more |
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Views Thursday, April 30, 2020 With Unprecedented 28 Million Unemployment Claims in 6 Weeks, Congress Must Act! The number of workers applying for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits has risen to never-before-seen levels as a result of the coronavirus shock. In the last six weeks, nearly 28 million workers have applied for unemployment compensation. That is more than one in six workers, and over five times... Read more |
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Views Thursday, April 16, 2020 In the Last Four Weeks, More Than 20 Million Workers Applied for Unemployment Insurance Benefits Correction: This post has been updated to show that 69% of the new UI filers were receiving benefits. An earlier version said 73%. In the last four weeks, 20.1 million people —more than one in eight workers—applied for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. This is more than a 2,200% increase over... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, April 07, 2020 What a 'Phase Four' Stimulus Package Must Provide In the last two weeks, nearly 10 million people applied for unemployment insurance. The March jobs report revealed a loss of 701,000 jobs —the first monthly job loss in nearly 10 years and already one of the worst monthly losses on record. Further, March’s job loss numbers are just the tip of the... Read more |
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Views Thursday, April 02, 2020 'Portrait of Disaster': Initial Unemployment Claims in US Jump from 211,000 to 6.6 million in Just 3 Weeks This morning, the Department of Labor (DOL) released data on initial unemployment insurance (UI) claims , showing that UI claims jumped from 211,000 in the week ending March 7th to 6.6 million in the week ending March 28th. This is more than a 3,000% increase in three weeks. This kind of upending... Read more |
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Views Thursday, March 26, 2020 Never Seen Anything Like This: Unemployment Claims Jumped Nearly 1500% in Two Weeks W e just got the first piece of government labor market data that really shows—in a breathtaking manner—the impact the coronavirus shock is having on the labor market. The data are last week’s initial unemployment insurance (UI) claims . Initial UI claims jumped from 211,000 three weeks ago to 282,... Read more |